Related topics

Button brushes off 'car accident' website defacement to claim GP win

#getsomefriends

Common Topics

F1 Driver Jenson Button brushed off an attack on his website late on Saturday night that falsely claimed he had been seriously injured in a car crash, and went on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Button, starting at third place on the grid, once again showed his skill in wet conditions and the tactical nous of his McLaren pit crew to win the race. The 2009 F1 world champion had a few choice words for the hacker who defaced his website, telling fans via his Twitter feed that the miscreant ought to get out and find some friends, rather than staying in on Saturday night and engaging in malicious pranks.

The website – jensonbutton.com – was restored to normal soon after the defacement, with a note (below) explaining that the planted story on a supposed car crash was a malicious lie and promising an investigation.

Earlier on today some of you may have seen a news article here on JensonButton.com regarding a car accident. This article was completely false and we are currently investigating how an unauthorised person was able to post to the site.

Suffice to say Jenson is safe, well and tucked up in bed looking forward to tomorrow's race, starting from 3rd on the grid.

We can only apologise for any alarm this may have caused.

Despite winning his 11th Grand Prix in Hungary, his second of the season following an earlier win in Montreal, Button remains fifth in the Championship, a long way behind runaway champion Sebastian Vettel.

Button's website runs Apache on Linux, according to Netcraft. The unnamed defacer probably exploited an unpatched vulnerability to deface the site, though that's only a guess and we might easily be wrong. ®